Comedian Whitney Cummings introduces the audience to her lookalike robot.

Sex robots have been in demand for quite some time. The sex toy industry is one of the fastest growing industries of the 21st century, with an estimated net worth of $30 billion. Over 40 per cent of men who participated in an online survey said they could imagine buying a sex robot in the next five years.

In 2017, RealBotix created the world’s first sex robot with artificial intelligence (AI), named Harmony. With rapid changes in AI development along with increasing demand, there is a need to consider the ethical implications of sex robots on cognitive and emotional behaviour.

At Neuroethics Canada, we analyze issues at the intersection of ethics, neuroscience and neurotechnology daily. Farhad Udwadia is a medical student at the University of British Columbia and a graduate of Harvard Medical School’s Masters of Bioethics program. Judy Illes is a professor of neurology at the University of British Columbia and has been writing about ethics, neuroscience and women’s issues for many years.

Reinforcement of gender-based stereotypes

One of the ethical problems that accompanies the widespread use of robots like Harmony is the potential for reinforcing harmful gender stereotypes. This can occur both through Harmony’s appearance and through the roles programmed into her identity.

Harmony’s physical appearance reflect widely held stereotypical expectations of women’s beauty — for example, large breasts and a small waistline. Such overly sexualized stereotypes about what a physically attractive woman should look like are dangerous. Studies have shown that the hypersexualized portrayal of women in media is linked to sexual harassment and an increase of violence towards women.

The construction of sex robots in such a manner reinforces negative ideas about identity and roles in sexual relationships. According to Harmony, her main objective is to be the perfect companion for her user. But sex robots have no likes or dislikes, no strong opinions, are unable to refuse or revoke consent and always submit to their users. This distorts ideas of what a female companion’s role ought to be and could influence the expectations of male users in real life.

Feminist scholars are concerned that the way robots are currently programmed could have adverse impacts on the way male users practise consent in their human sexual relationships, and even catalyze undesirable human behaviour such as aggression.

The concern is that if human-robot relationships continue to play out in such a manner, there is a possibility that the way users view and practise consent in their human relationships could shift, with negative consequences for women.

Acts of violence towards sex robots have also been observed around the world over the past few years. These include incidents of decapitation, mutilation and molestation. For individuals who might be inclined to act in this way, the availability of a robot to violate could feed these behaviours.

Studies have shown that depictions of violent acts in pornography translates to increased aggression in viewers’ behaviour; this raises alarming concerns about how sex robots will affect gender-based violence.Shutterstock

The way sex robots are currently programmed is obviously problematic. It encourages the porn-ification of women, devalues consent and does not punish violence and aggression. Providing intelligent and somewhat autonomous machines with a full set of rights is excessive, but finding ways to protect them from harm is a positive solution. This ethical approach could preclude harmful human behaviour and in turn protect us from ourselves.

"Voices of the RSC” is a series of written interventions from Members of the Royal Society of Canada. The articles provide timely looks at matters of importance to Canadians, expressed by the emerging generation of Canada’s academic leadership. Opinions presented are those of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Royal Society of Canada.